Reads and Reviews – January 2022

Beautiful Country

Beautiful Country

Beautiful Country is a memoir by Qian Julie Wang. Wang revisits the painful years of her early childhood growing up as an undocumented immigrant in New York City. Her parents left China (first her father, then Wang with her mother), and came to the United States with absolutely nothing. In those early years, her family faces extreme poverty and racism - all while living with the constant fear that they might be deported. Wang's story recounts the difficulties of those years with excruciating detail. While New York City seems enormous to most of us, Wang's world was actually very small. She knew little beyond the walls of her family's cramped apartment and that world was colored vividly by her parent's fear and real insecurity. 
Qang struggles with malnutrition, her parent's sadness and frustration over the circumstances, and every day is eked out from the smallest strands of support. Wang is just a few years younger than me, and I found myself comparing the circumstances I grew up in to her stark experience just four hours away. Amazingly, Wang never seems hopeless. She learns to read and speak English on her own, and she scavenges together means for her own survival. In all, the book strikes a hopeful tone.
 
While the full text is too long to assign, I could definitely see using sections of this book as part of a class. Even an excerpt would explain how terrifying the world can be for immigration children. and how one's undocumented status can take over everyday life. 
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How to do Nothing

How to do Nothing

Odell's book focuses on the distraction of social media, however, she approaches the topic from a philosophical perspective that goes way beyond the social media realm. Her book isn't really about "doing nothing." Instead, the book focuses on the rise of social media, and how the constant updates and check-ins on social media have changed the way we interact with the real world. She also addresses how the distraction of social media has distanced us from the lives we actually live, and how a constant diet of news headlines, FOMO, and awareness of the latest "whatever" hasn't really contributed positively to the daily experience. Instead, the neediness of the attention economy just manifests more anxiety and sleep deprivation. Odell's book is full of historical context. She incorporates the words of Greek philosophers, artists, the environment, the demands of capitalism, and her own observations into a book that is rich with detailed and thoughtful observation. 
 
I have been continually re-analyzing the way that I interact with social media, and this book gave me a lot of questions to mull over. The points Odell makes in this book really hit close to home. After listening to an interview with the author, I decided to make some changes. I still have social media - it's not a platform I intend to completely remove from my life. However, I was certainly guilty of the mindless scroll, and I know that I gave myself more anxiety by doing so. I deleted Instagram and Facebook off my phone and I deleted the login information also. Now, I have scheduled times of the week where I check-in on both platforms. They still exist in my life, but I am intentional about how I interact in those spaces. Immediately, I've felt such a relaxation in my thoughts. I'm more focused, and I don't find myself reaching for my phone every five minutes - really because there's not much to engage my attention besides my Spanish language app or the weather. 
If you don't have the time to read this book full at the moment (it is a dense read), I highly suggest checking out Odell's interview with Jon Faveau from the Offline Podcast.
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Station 11

Station 11

Station 11 takes place in a post-pandemic world. In this case, 99.9% of humans have been killed off by a strain of the flu, and those who survive must literally claw together a new reality. Both the show and the book follow a myriad of characters, all who are connected by their relationship to a comic book called Station 11. This review is unusual in that I watched the TV show based on the novel first. Then, I proceeded to read the book afterwards.

I was absolutely mesmerized by the show. The writing was unique and creative, and it envisioned a post-pandemic world that didn't rehash the typical tropes. Instead of a world overwhelmed by constant fear, murder, and survival, there is art, there is Shakespeare, and there is a realistic outline of trauma that rises above just generic sadness.

The book and the show were so different that it actually proves difficult to compare the two. It's as though two authors were given basic plotlines, and then told to submit their version of the story. While some of the details are similar, they really are distant cousins of each other. The book includes most of the same characters, though the characters are given different circumstances and plot lines. The major emotional arc of the show - the relationship between Kristen and Jeevan - isn't present in the book at all. The book does add some richness to the story from the show, however, honestly, I think the show was the superior of the two. Maybe I would have felt differently if I had read the book first. Regardless, I think both hold merit, and I would suggest reading the book and watching the show for the richest experience.

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